Buz (Trophy Picture Books) (Paperback)

by Richard Egielski (Author, Illustrator) "One morning, Buz, a bug, was eaten along with a spoonful of cornflakes..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Telling the story of a boy who swallows a bug, Egielski "paints as if with a zoom lens, magnifying the mundane and creating a quirky, effectively claustrophobic universe," said PW. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 2?One morning, a boy eats a bug along with his cornflakes. As the brief narrative unfolds, viewers glimpse the creature's journey through the boy's body, the doctor's confirmation of the presence of a "bug," and the cops-and-robbers-like chase by the bumbling pills. Egielski makes effective use of double-page close-ups, interior and exterior perspectives, and page layout to build suspense and heighten dramatic impact. The pictures work well from a distance, so groups will enjoy them. The palette changes from fleshy pinks to shadowy blues as Buz moves away from the source of light. An abundance of white highlights on the pills and Buz creates the same shiny look used by the illustrator in Pam Conrad's The Tub People (HarperCollins, 1989), giving the characters a toylike quality. The little creature escapes, but not without catching?a germ. Guess what the doctor prescribes? This is probably not a title one will read again and again, but it is clever enough the first time through. Use it with Chris Van Allsburg's Two Bad Ants (Houghton, 1988) to portray unusual adventures from out-of-the-ordinary perspectives.?Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (February 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0064434796
• ISBN-13: 978-0064434799
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 7.6 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #808,426 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kids ask for it by name!, January 16, 1999

By	Kid's Librarian ([e-mail]) (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buz (Hardcover)

I'm a Children's Librarian and in my experience "Buz" is the only book that I have actually had the kids ask for by name. Usually when I have storytime, the kids completely forget what I've read by the following week, but not so with Buz. Egielski's illustrations are delightful and the text is so much fun to read! And to top off all this it's education to boot! I highly recommend BUZ!

4.0 out of 5 stars Buz, October 18, 2007

By	Anna M. Ligtenberg "AnnaLovesBooks" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buz (Hardcover)

ISBN 0060235667 - As an adult, I have a hard time giving this book more than a star or two. Fortunately, it's not written for adults, which earns it a few extra.

Buz, a bug whose entire vocabulary is "Buzzz" (surprised?), is swallowed by a boy. The boy's doctor confirms that the boy does, indeed, "have a bug" and gives him two pills. The pills set out to remove Buz from the boy, but he escapes while the boy is in the tub... only to visit his own doctor and find out he has a germ.

Inside the cover flap, the pills are referred to as "Keystone Cop Pills", so the resemblance to those silent movie stars isn't even remotely incidental - unfortunately, most kids today won't have a clue who the Keystone Cops were. The upside of that might be the chance to sit down and show them! The text is very simple and nothing special but the illustrations are phenomenal. Young kids will enjoy the story, especially when they're stuck home, sick in bed!

4.0 out of 5 stars Journey to the center of a boy, December 10, 2004

By	E. R. Bird "Ramseelbird" (Manhattan, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

You know what's wrong with the youth of America today? No real appreciation for Keystone Cop references (bet you didn't see THAT one coming). In the old days a child could take one look at a round headed bumbling policeman and immediately understand why that image was so freakin' hilarious. Today, no such luck. Fortunately there are books out there like, "Buz" by Richard Egielski to alleviate such cares and woes. A raucous romp that follows a single bug and his misadventures inside an average boy, it's a fun little story with a whole lotta pep. It's not the greatest source of factual information regarding the human body, but it's still worth a look-see and a read-aloud.

Buz is not having a good day. He's just been devoured along with some cornflakes by a boy and has found himself trapped in the boy's body. After a quick visit to the doctor, the kid learns that he does indeed have a bug. Enter in two pills, charged with removing Buz from the body. That's where the Keystone Cop references enter in. Buz manages to elude his tormentors until finally escaping while the boy takes a bath. This leaves Buz with a cold of his very own and a fellow insect doctor tells him he has a germ. The last image in the book is of that very germ staring out of one of Buz's eyes with a look of trapped panic. The end!

Author/illustrator Richard Egielski is probably best known in chatty children's circles for his Caldecott winning book, "Hey, Al", which he illustrated for. "Buz" marks his foray into the wild uncouth world of artists who are also authors. As it is, the story is all well and good. There's no getting around the point, of course, that kids reading this book might acquire some fairly screwy ideas of how the body fits together. Buz spends a portion of the book standing on the other side of the boy's eye, watching the world through the kid's iris. Also, he finds it moderately simple to swim out of the child's ear. And there is of course the fact that the doctor says the boy has a bug when, in fact, he means that literally. Telling a kid, after reading "Buz", that they have a bug of some sort may give them odd ideas of what that actually means. FYI.

These are fairly petty concerns, of course. I mean, the book's really quite good. While I found Egielski's illustrations verging on the disturbing in "Hey, Al", here I liked `em just fine. Whether you're watching flying cornchips whizzing past Buz's head in the boy's mouth or enjoying a tug of war between the two pills when they finally grab ahold of Buz, everything in this book is clear and beautifully rendered. There's a cleanliness to the lines here that's pleasant to look at and easy to understand if you're a child. Egielski also has a good sense of narrative flow, making his first attempt at writing a picture book well done.

I know you probably have your own bug-gets-trapped-in-a-child's-body picture book favorites of your own, but I think you should at least give "Buz" a try. It's wacky good-natured chase em' down fun. A nice combination of slapstick comedy and surreal interior adventures. It's definitely a book to remember.